Thread by @KA_Nicholas

Agriculture is the most destructive human activity invented. Major cause of biodiversity loss, water and ocean pollution, climate pollution. @LennartLUCSUS says the root cause is using annual plants instead of perennials - a 10,000 year old mistake. Thread on his talk 👇🏽

@LennartLUCSUS Annual crops (cereals, oilseeds, legumes) are 80% of food. This means overturning soil and destroying its structure & life at least 1-2x/year. @LennartLUCSUS

@LennartLUCSUS .@LennartLUCSUS quotes Wes Jackson on natural system agriculture. The key is diversity in space (polyculture) + perennial crops living for many years w/ large/deep roots. Jackson's vision for perennial ag he thought would take 100 years, closer to reality in 50.

Over 400 dead zones in global oceans, including nearly all of Baltic Sea. These are primarily caused by intensive agriculture (over fertilization). If we can develop attractive perennial crops that need less fertilizer, we might save the Baltic Sea says @LennartLUCSUS

@LennartLUCSUS Problems of annual monocultures:
1. Soil is (slowly) renewable resource; now eroding 2-3x faster than renewing
2. Fertilizer expensive; air/water pollution
3. Soil carbon loss
4. Weeds invited by annual field opening, no competition
5. Energy (machinery use)
-@LennartLUCSUS

Annual ag is as if subcontractor designed end product. Instead of Volvo designing car, it’s each subcontractor. For ag this is seed companies, input etc says @LennartLUCSUS

Annual agriculture reliance on tech creates system of overproduction, declining prices, debt, low wages, increasing input costs- drives social unsustainability of agriculture, says @LennartLUCSUS.

@LennartLUCSUS For annuals now, 85% gross income goes to buy inputs, away from local economy- to seed and agrichemical industry. With perennials, farmers would spend much less time and money -completely different local economy - libraries, cinemas, restaurants to rural villages @LennartLUCSUS

History of grain cultivation if @LennartLUCSUS has his way! Perennial grains are like modern annual grains above ground, like wild perennials below.

A spoon of soil from a Swedish beech soil has over 1 kilometer of fungal mycorrhiza - expands and recycles nutrients. Ag soils have little life (chemicals, disturbance, bred crops to use synthetic inputs). Adding chemicals masks collapse of soil biota says @LennartLUCSUS

@LennartLUCSUS Deep roots and mycorrhiza can probably make use of phosphate already in agricultural soils, instead of relying on mined imports from Sahara. With perennial crops & healthy crops "we can delay collapse of agriculture due to lack of P by a few centuries I hope" says @LennartLUCSUS

Perennials could make better use of water, keep in soil. 12 months of photosynthesis. More biomass needs more water, but perennials can get what they need from reducing water losses.

Measurements of CO2 fluxes:
Conventional wheat loses 6.5-8.2 tons CO2/ha/year to atmosphere: C source ☹️
So far 3 fields of perennial kernza measured as carbon sinks taking up 13.5 tons/year: C sink 😃
@LennartLUCSUS

Given all great advantages of perennial agriculture, why isn’t it everywhere? Political economy and power of ag market says @LennartLUCSUS

Reliance on inputs is the business model of current ag industry. They want to keep increasing inputs. This is a losing game - see growing roundup resistance- evolution will always be smarter than people says @LennartLUCSUS

The agro-industrial chemical industry has the regulation they want now. Government Regulation makes dangerous things easier to sell and reduces eventual liability says @LennartLUCSUS. Red chemical industry has bought up seed industry (blue circles)

Research front for perennial grains:
Most successful so far is rice. Perennial rice = bred from annual rice + perennial native. 7 seasons so far, yields steady and similar to annuals, ca 9 tons/ha. Great Econ return to farmers. And tasty! Need to study methane. @LennartLUCSUS

The proof is in the pudding- @LennartLUCSUS passes out homemade bread from perennial grains. Tasty! There’s also beer brewed from perennial @NatureAsMeasure grain (this was unfortunately not available for tasting)

Perennial crops are perhaps not only desirable but necessary under more stressful climates. Deep rooted plants survived Dust Bowl while annuals died and partly drove migration of 2m people. We need perennial oils to replace palm oil (yields still low) says @LennartLUCSUS

The development of new perennial crops is underway worldwide, shows @LennartLUCSUS. Breeding, ecological, agronomist, social and economic aspects & more

Above: conventional wheat, the whole plant will be harvested. Below: 2 year old perennial kernza, which will keep growing for many years. @LennartLUCSUS @NatureAsMeasure

@LennartLUCSUS @NatureAsMeasure "My vision is that children in 2065 will read about the Perennial Revolution in agriculture in the '20s, where scientists helped avert the #Climate and ecological crisis, and the kids will laugh and say, how could humanity be so stupid for 10,000 years?" @LennartLUCSUS

@LennartLUCSUS @NatureAsMeasure response to question: biggest challenge for perennial ag now is money. Resources being invested now are TINY compared with conventional ag industry. It was 1 person + some student assistants who developed perennial kernza. Also consistent $; plant breeding slow. @LennartLUCSUS